Redemption: Montana Wolves, Book Three (Montana Wolves series 3) by Chloe Cole

Don’t add insult to injury by disrespecting our alpha at a time like this. If you care about the pack, you will stop what you're doing, get in your truck, and get back here, now,” she said.
    Without responding, he depressed the red button to disconnect and set the phone down next to his jeans.
    "What?" Amber asked, laying a warm hand on his shoulder. "Is everything all right?"
    He hadn't anticipated this. Not so fast, at any rate.
    He kept his features calm and turned back to her, the ache in his gut worsening at the sight of her beautiful face. "No. We've got a situation to deal with. I'm so sorry to do this to you right now. I wanted to spend the next week talking. Explaining things, exploring our options. I know I’ve piled enough on your plate for the night, but there's no getting around it.”
    He tucked a wet strand of hair behind her ear.
    “The timeline has changed. You have two choices now. I take you home to pack your most sentimental possessions and I put you on a plane to Budapest or Fiji or somewhere far, far away until I've assessed and eliminated the risks. Or you can come with me to the compound and face the pack. I've broken a lot of—" Christ, so many, "rules tonight, not to mention some direct orders, and I have to stand and face my brothers and sisters and explain why.”
    He hated this. Seeing her shining face grow solemn and scared again.
    “Risks? I don’t get it. I thought you said Tobias Wheeler was no longer a threat?”
    How sad was that? The same night he told her about the existence of weres, he also had to tell her that they were often their own worst enemies. That, while they had dealt with Tobias, they had only traded one danger for another. One that could prove far more deadly.
    “If you come with me,” he continued, determined to get it all said quick, like ripping off a bandage, before he started answering questions. “You're going to be judged, and possibly mocked, and once the other packs know about you, you will be hated. Worse, you will be targeted.” He took her hands in his and squeezed, making sure his gaze conveyed how committed he was. “But I will protect you. You have my word on that. So now you need to ask yourself if you're in, or you're out. Because once you're told the rest of it, and enter the compound, the wheels will be set in motion that can't be stopped. You won't have the luxury of just walking away, so you need to be sure. I won't blame you if you want to run."
    Her furrowed brow and worried eyes seemed to take on a harder, more determined edge and she took a long breath.
    "What are we waiting for?"
----
    “ I S this real life right now?” Maggie demanded, her voice shrill with disbelief as she looked at him, and then at Amber, and back again. “Liam tells you to come and you bring her with you? You realize, you have just confirmed to the Kotke and Big Sky Canyon packs that we are accepting another human into the Pray fold? The human they’ve been suspicious of for more than a month now?"
    He stood his ground and squeezed Amber's trembling hand in his. He couldn't imagine how terrified she must be. On a good day, Maggie was intimidating. On a day like today, when she looked like she would just as soon slit both their throats and be done with it, she was chilling.
    “I did what I thought was right. We wronged her, Maggie. All of us.” He swept his gaze over the rest of his packmates scattered around the great room. “She thought she was losing her mind, and she’d started asking questions that would put her life in jeopardy. I wasn’t about to stand by and watch an innocent woman die because a couple of backward old men don’t like the fact that this pack has chosen to treat people as more than food, sport or some sort of nuisance to be exterminated. In this, I thought we were of the same mind, Liam.” He let his gaze settle on the alpha and waited.
    "And so we are, Billy. But there is a lot at stake. You've forced my hand by bringing her here,